Tag: osha safety air gun

Safety Air Guns: Keeping Powder Mixers Clean

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

A manufacturer that produced a blend of powders for consumers contacted EXAIR for a blow-off cleaning application.  The conversation started with the setup that they were using.  They had two large mixers that would mix different powders.  One mixer could fit a total weight between 2,200 lbs. to 4,400 lbs. (1000 kg to 2000 kg) of powder.  The second one was between 220 lbs. to 2,200 lbs. (100 kg to 1000 Kg).    They were looking for a method to clean after each mix without using liquid water.  They did have a vacuum port at one end, but the blades still had some powder remaining.  For batch consolidation and serialization, they needed to manually clean each one before the next process.  They contacted EXAIR to review our Safety Air Guns.

Because of the length of time to clean out the blenders, they needed something ergonomic and safe.  Since EXAIR has a wide range of Safety Air Guns, we were able to provide a safe and effective product.  The safety comes from our engineered nozzles which have low noise levels and cannot be dead-ended.  For this customer, I recommended the model HP1230SS-48 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun for the large mixer and model HP1230SS-12 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun for the smaller mixer.  The nozzle is a model HP1125SS High Power Stainless Steel 2” Flat Super Air Nozzle to give a wide air pattern. The suffixes of “-48” and “-12” are lengths in inches of the extensions to help get to those “hard to reach” spots.  EXAIR has extensions from 6” (152 mm) up to 72” (1,829 mm) in length.   Now they can reach deep inside to get the entire mixing blades. 

EXAIR’s Soft Grip Safety Air Gun has a durable cast aluminum body with a soft handle grip that is best suited for rugged industrial use. The ergonomic design has a larger trigger for easy operation and a convenient hanger hook for easy storage. Chip Shields for worker safety are available. EXAIR offers different Safety Air Nozzles in different materials to best suit your application.  

The operation for cleaning would start once the mixed powder is dumped to go to the next process.  The operator would turn on the vacuum and use the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun to reach inside to remove any excess powder.  What the operator enjoyed was the low noise level and the comfortable grip.  This company liked these Safety Air Guns enough to purchase eight more model HP1230-6 Soft Grip Safety Air Guns to clean around their presses for housekeeping.

Whenever you need to look at the overall process for improvement, EXAIR may have multiple solutions to offer.  We have Safety Air Guns designed for small and large processes.  You can speak to an Application Engineer to see how EXAIR can increase safety, improve efficiency, and save you money.

John Ball                                                                                     

Application Engineer

Email: johnball@exair.com

X: @EXAIR_jb

Photo: Large mixer by Charlemagne.  Pixabay Content license

Soft Grip Safety Air Guns

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

From August 1st to September 30th, 2024, with qualified purchases online, EXAIR will be giving away a 1” Flat Super Air Nozzle with a purchase of our Safety Air Guns, including the VariBlast Precision, VariBlast Compact, Soft Grip, Heavy Duty, Super Blast and TurboBlast Safety Air Guns.  We are promoting the importance of safety in the workplace with the EXAIR Safety Air Guns. 

Compressed air guns are one of the most commonly used pneumatic products in manufacturing plants.  They are used at workstations to blow off debris and clean parts and tools.  Because of the large quantities that are used, they are the most targeted by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).  The majority of the common brands of air guns fail to comply with two common violations, rule 29CFR 1910.95(a) for noise levels and rule 29CFR 1910.242(b) for dead-end pressure.  The reason for this is due to the type of nozzle that comes with the compressed air gun.  OSHA fines can be very expensive, and you can alleviate these penalties by purchasing an EXAIR Safety Air Gun.  Safety is everyone’s responsibility: management, the HSE department (Health and Safety Engineer), supervisors, and even the operators.   In this blog, I will cover the features and benefits of one of our more common Safety Air Guns; the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun. 

EXAIR Safety Air Guns are available, from stock, with Chip Shields.

EXAIR’s Soft Grip Safety Air Gun has a durable cast aluminum body with a soft handle grip that is best suited for rugged industrial use. The ergonomic design has a larger trigger for easy operation and a convenient hanger hook for easy storage. Chip Shields for worker safety are available. Extension pipes from 6” (152mm) to 72” (1,829mm) are available, as well as stay set hoses, from 6” (152mm) to 36” (914mm) for hard-to-reach areas.  EXAIR offers a wide range of Safety Air Nozzles in different materials to fit onto the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun to suit your application.  

As I mentioned above, the nozzles are one of the most significant parts of making a compressed air gun safe and OSHA compliant.  EXAIR combines our engineered nozzles with a quality air gun to make the EXAIR Safety Air Guns one of the best products on the market.  With our Safety Air Guns, we use less compressed air but still create a strong blowing force.  We do this by entraining the free ambient air into the air stream.  If you increase the mass of air at the target, it will give you a hard-hitting force to remove debris from surfaces or to clean tools and holes.  The amplification ratio can be as high as 25 to 1.  That means that for every one part of compressed air that it uses, the EXAIR Nozzles will entrain 25 parts of free ambient air.  Also, the payback period for using a Soft Grip Safety Air Gun could be within weeks due to the savings in electrical costs from your air compressor.  With EXAIR products, we were able to partner with Energy Star and power facilities to get rebates in selected areas.        

A substandard blow-off gun is unsafe, loud, and wasteful.  EXAIR Safety Air Guns can help improve these situations.  They are OSHA compliant, very safe, and very quiet.  They use less compressed air, which saves you money.  And with a variety of different nozzles, they can better fit your application to decrease downtime.  In the U.S. and Canada, EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee on our cataloged items so you can try them out.  You can see for yourself how effective these compressed air guns can be.  If you need help matching the best Safety Air Gun to your application, you can contact an Application Engineer.  And during the next two months, take advantage of the free 1” Flat Super Air Nozzle, a $62.00 complimentary gift, with a qualified purchase.    

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

EXAIR’s Turboblast Safety Air Gun – As Powerful as Olympic Weightlifters?

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

As a competitive powerlifter, I’m always excited to watch Weightlifting during the Summer Olympics. While the lifts themselves differ from power lifting competitions, it never ceases to amaze me how powerful some of the lifters are. Regardless of which style of lifting you participate in, one thing always rings true – consistency is key! That’s why here at EXAIR we’re committed to providing high-quality products that are shipped from stock the sameday. If there’s one thing you know you can always count on with EXAIR, it’s consistency. In every year of my tenure here (over 14 years), we’ve achieved a 99.8% or better on-time shipping rate, with the lone exception being during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Olympic weightlifters aren’t the only ones generating power this week. EXAIR’s Turboblast Safety Air Guns are helping customers in facilities all over the world handle tough applications. When power is of the utmost concern regarding a blowoff, the Turboblast Safety Air Gun is the ideal fit – offering up to 23lbs of force with our largest nozzle.

See for yourself on video as the gun easily blows a large adjustable crescent wrench across the shop floor with ease:

Each Turboblast gun is also available with an optional adjustable gate valve. If the application requires a bit more “fine-tuning” than just a standard on/off, the adjustable gate valve can allow the operator to make finite adjustments on-the-fly without having to adjust the air pressure supplied upstream.

Now through the end of September, we’re running our Safety Air Gun Promotion. Order any Turboblast (or other air gun) and receive a free 1” Flat Super Air Nozzle. Get in touch with an Application Engineer today to discuss how we can help improve the efficiency in your blowoff processes.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD

Image courtesy of TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay Creative Commons License

Compressed Air Safety Do’s and Don’t’s

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

DO take compressed air safety seriously. We are all familiar with the importance of safety. Almost every company has some form of annual safety training. One of the common themes of these kinds of training is that it is not just some people’s responsibility, but that it is everyone’s responsibility. Here at EXAIR we take safety seriously. All of our products are engineered with safety in mind – we even have a line of products with ‘safety’ in the name – Safety Air Guns. This is very important, as working with compressed air can present some health risks if not used properly.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is an organization here in the United States that enforces governmental directives for safe and healthy working environments. They can also enforce these directives with heavy fines for violations.  With compressed air, the two most common violations are air guns and blowoff devices are described in 29CFR 1910.242(b) for dead-end pressure/chip shielding and 29CFR 1910.95(a) for maximum allowable noise exposure.

The first regulation – 29CFR 1910.242(b) – references the use of hand-held tools. DON’T use a blowoff device at more than 30psig if the compressed air can be dead-ended. If the compressed air has no other path to escape, it can penetrate the skin, causing an air embolism. A common and simple solution is to cross-drill a hole to allow an alternate path. This could create other safety issues, as we will discuss later. EXAIR’s nozzles are designed with fins which allow the air to escape and not be blocked by your skin.  So, you can safely use the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles above 30psig.

The second regulation – 29CFR 1910.95(a) – references the maximum allowable sounds level an individual should be exposed to. DON’T allow an operator to be exposed to excessive sound levels for too long. This is where the cross-drilled nozzle falls short. Although safe from dead-end pressure, the sound produced by the turbulent airflow is very loud. The engineered design of EXAIR’s nozzles entrain the surrounding air into a laminar flow, which is much quieter. Our Model 1210 Safety Air Gun (which uses our Model 1100 Nozzle) only has a sounds level of 74dBA, which is comfortably under the noise exposure limit for 8 hours.

If you want to take compressed air safety seriously, then DO use EXAIR’s line of safe, quiet and efficient Safety Air Guns and Air Nozzles. If you would like to discuss this, or any of your other compressed air application needs, then give me a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Dead End image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay